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Originally Posted by rlauzon
I do see the value that a publisher may bring an author, but as a reader, why do I care?
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Leaving out the obvious benefit to the reader of having a book proofread before one reads it, some publishers develop habits of purchase that help to indicate what their books are like, which can be useful in deciding whether to purchase -- or even spend time reading -- a book, especially by an unknown author. For example, Baen books has a certain "style" of sf. I like some of their stuff, but not being much into military stories, I don't like all of it. However, I know more or less what to expect from a Baen book. Other publishers similarly can have certain trends in their books.
A good review service could potentially replace this, and I'd like to see more of those. I don't mean just Amazon style popularity contests, but reviews by critical readers whose opinions I trust. But what is the benefit to someone reading through the "slush pile" of self-published eBooks and rating them or writing reviews? Web page ads just don't generate that much. Some reviewers might be paid by magizines (including webzines), but that in itself might not be enough compensation if one has to read 100 eBooks to find one worth recommending. Perhaps if there were a way of providing reviewers with a commission on sales, it could be worthwhile for people who have critical reading and writing skills to take on this task. (And if you think this would be a conflict of interest, it's no more so than traditional publishers already have.) But in any case, I think some alternate model will need to be developed to compensate for this function of publishers before they can be eliminated from the process.